Secret Agent Girl
by DiscordianSamba
Summary: When she had first been assigned this mission, looking after a headstrong, hotblooded detective had not been in her plans.


**AN** : Finally a fill for this prompt that has been setting in my tumblr askbox for awhile now! They asked for something about Kazuha as being a secret agent type, and while sadly this is absent of cool secret agent action, I think it's pretty cute regardless. I was mostly in the mood for a bit of fluff, really, when I wrote this. I hope everyone else enjoys it!

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 **Secret Agent Girl**

 **Summary** : When she had first been assigned this mission, looking after a headstrong, hotblooded detective had not been in her plans.

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"I thought I told ya ta wait at the hotel!"

"Ya did. I just ignored it."

The admission was so frank, that she almost half couldn't believe her ears. It wasn't exactly as if she had expected her most recent job to be easy- but she hadn't expected it to come part and parcel with _this_ kind of problem. For a moment, she found herself almost finding it akin to babysitting- but not only was the young man who was causing her so much trouble the same age as her, but quite honestly?

Babysitting was _easier_.

"Ya ignored it?" Placing a hand on her forehead, feeling the throb of a headache, it was all that Toyama Kazuha could do to draw in a long breath, trying not to lose her temper right then and there. "I told ya ta stay at the hotel fer yer own safety, ya know. There's people gunnin' fer yer head, an' here ya are, walkin' around in public."

"I'm a detective, people wantin' ta kill me ain't anythin' new." With an easy grin that made her wonder if he was at all aware as to how much of a headache he was causing her, the detective simply didn't look worried at all. At this point, she didn't know if he was brave, or just a huge idiot.

Possibly both.

He had been introduced to her as Hattori Heiji, a private detective who worked in the area. By the time she had been assigned to the case, he had already been involved in it, as a witness, and a rather valuable one at that. By chance, while working on an entirely unrelated investigation, he had happened to witness something suspicious- a pair of men, the same pair of men that they had been looking for, for some time now at that. Members of a drug smuggling ring, one that they had been tasked with rooting out and wiping out.

It had been the first solid lead that they'd had that they were making a move in this country, just as they had first suspected. What they _hadn't_ realized at the time was just how much trouble the witness in question was going to turn out to be. It wasn't his information that was the problem, nor the fact that his life was currently being targeted, that they could handle. Rather, the source of the problem was his own behavior.

Namely, his insistence that he be involved with the case. Even though his own life was in danger because of what he had seen, he showed no willingness to let that sort of thing stop him- if anything, it only made him even more eager to help. While it was true that their agency sometimes accepted help from outside consultants when needed, something like this was unprecedented.

To make matters worse, he'd taken a shine to her, for reasons that she could not understand. And while one would normally assume that this meant he might listen to her a bit better than the others, if anything, it was the exact _opposite_. He'd proven himself as not much of one to listen to anyone, but she got the distinct feeling that he listened to her far less than he did anyone else.

Seriously, what was this guy's deal?

From what little she knew of him, she knew that he was a rather talented detective, as well as the son of Osaka's current chief of police, a man even she had heard of. But where the father was levelheaded and composed, the son was hardly anything like that, leaving her to wonder what had gone so wrong in his childhood that he'd ended up like this as an adult. If anything, he seemed to bristle whenever his father was so much as mentioned, leaving her to wonder if they had a bad relationship.

The worst part of it all, of course, was that she actually found herself hard put to truly _dislike_ the guy. There was something almost infectious about his smile, as out of place as it was sometimes, and he had a way of breaking the tension and allowing her to relax when she needed it the most. Were they to meet under other circumstances, she might actually be interested in getting to know him better, but under the current ones?

She just wished he would stay put, _for once_.

"Detective or not, I'm fairly certain that the people who have tried ta kill ya in the past are on an entirely different scale the ones tryin' ta kill ya right now." Kazuha noted, placing her hands on her hips, heaving a long sigh. "These guys are wanted _around the world_ , ya know. They're not small fries by any means."

"Eh, not my first time dealin' with that type." With an easy shrug of his shoulders, the young man flashed her another wide grin. "Though it has been awhile. Not since I was in high school!"

"I find that rather hard ta believe." Kazuha noted, staring him down. She knew him well enough now to know that his expression wouldn't falter from it, but it did make her feel better, if nothing else.

"It the truth, though." Heiji supplied, tucking his hands into his pockets, jerking his head in the direction she had been monitoring, up until she had spotted him out of the corner of her eye. "So? Those the guys yer watchin'?"

Heaving a long sigh, sensing that she wasn't going to get out of this one, Kazuha merely accepted that she was going to be stuck with him, once again. "...yes, it's them. One of the men is one of our contacts, it's my job to keep tabs on him in case we need ta pull him out, fast."

"The one in the gray suit, I take it." Heiji noted, his gaze briefly flickering in his direction.

Pausing only for a moment, mentally wondering what it was that had tipped him off, Kazuha merely nodded her head. While looking after him was something of a chore, his abilities, at the very least, were the real deal. "If all goes well, there's a chance we might be able ta locate their hideout today."

"Or one of 'em, at least." Heiji said, folding his arms in front of his chest, leaning back in his seat. "From the sound of it, they've already rooted themselves deeply in this city. Ta think that they would dare do somethin' like that on my turf... I'll _definitely_ teach 'em why Osaka isn't a city fer them ta mess with."

"An' as I keep tellin' ya, ya don't need ta do that, Hattori-san. By gettin' further involved with this, yer only puttin' yerself in more danger." Kazuha told him simply, narrowing her eyes. "This is our job. Leave it ta us."

"This is _my_ city." Heiji pointed out, quirking a brow. "An' I'm a detective. I just can't sit around an' ignore somethin' like this, not when it's happenin' right in front of me." There was a slight pause then, as she all but watched the gears shifting inside of his head. "An' ya don't need ta call me so formally, ya know. Heiji's fine."

"Besides," his gaze both darting away from her and the men alike, a hand strayed up behind his neck, something she had come to know as a nervous habit of his, "...ya haven't even given me yer name yet."

"I have." Kazuha said simply, sensing where this was about to go. It hadn't, after all, been the first time he had asked. "Like I told ya before, my name is-"

"Not _that_ name." Heiji said, closing his eyes, something of an irritated expression crossing his face. "Yer _real_ name."

"I'm afraid that's on a need ta know basis." Kazuha told him simply.

"Are ya sayin' I'm not someone who needs ta know?" Heiji asked, peeking one eye open, a glimmer of hope clearly shining in it.

"Why are ya so interested in my name anyways?" Kazuha asked, keeping an eye on the men as she spoke. Well, they'd look more convincing if they were engaged in conversation, she supposed, so long as they kept their voices somewhat down. "It's not the first time ya've asked."

"I'm curious." Heiji asked, tilting his head back a bit, watching the man in the gray suit out of the corner of his eye. For the moment, on that end, things seemed to be going rather smoothly, even if he couldn't hear what they were saying from here. "There anythin' wrong with that?"

It wasn't as if he couldn't claim that he didn't have a certain amount of personal investment in it- and it wasn't simply because they'd tried to kill him once already. If anything, the thing that he found himself the most interested in wasn't the case, but rather, the young woman by his side. This wasn't the first time they had met, of that he was almost certain- but without her name, he'd never know for sure.

Sometimes he thought about calling her by the one that he knew, but somehow, he got the feeling that wouldn't go over very well. While she had remained deeply ingrained in his heart, ever since that day, he was alone in that. She didn't seem to remember him at all, which brought him more of a sting than he would like to admit.

Still, he was never really one to back down from a challenge. He had been chasing her shadow ever since that spring day in Kyoto, over twenty years ago, to the point where others made fun of him for it. Since fate had seen to it to throw the two of them back together again, he wasn't about to let this chance slip away from him.

If he did, who knew when he'd get another?

And well... he was concerned about the case, too, in the end. Which was why no matter how much he hated to tear his eyes away from her face- she had grown up to be prettier than he could have ever pictured- he knew that he had to focus on the task at hand. All the more so since he had basically butted his way into it.

"Of course there is." Kazuha said simply. "We wouldn't be usin' codenames if my real one was somethin' that I could give out so freely."

"Then, what about when this is over?" Heiji asked. "Will ya tell me then?"

There was a slight pause then, and for a moment, he thought that he might not get an answer. No sooner than he had thought such a thing, Kazuha let out a sharp sigh, her gaze only briefly darting his way, before she turned her attention back towards the men.

That was the other bothersome thing about him, really- there was something about him that was just so _distracting_ to her. There were moments, rather brief ones, where she found herself possessed of the notion that this wasn't the first time they had met, though she was certain that it was. And no matter how much she turned it over in her head, she couldn't place just exactly what that might be. Strangely enough, it wasn't entirely something that she found to be unpleasant.

Because in truth, if she really wanted to, there was nothing stopping her from passing the task of watching him to someone else. As much trouble as he was, she hadn't even considered the notion, even once.

Perhaps it simply meant that she was a fool. Or perhaps it was simply because some part of her felt as if he was worth the trouble. That part, it seemed, was the one who gave her answer. Normally, she would have just said no, and cut it short at that, but...

"I'll give it some thought."


End file.
